Soldiers

Inquiry shall likewise be made about the professions and trades of those who are brought to be admitted to the [Christian] faith. ... A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded. ... If he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected. ... If a catechumen or a believer seeks to become a soldier, they must be rejected, for they have despised God. ~ Hippolytus of Rome

Soldiers are members of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary.

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Where is Christ, the King? In heaven, to be sure. Thither it behooves you, soldier of Christ, to direct your course. Forget all earthly delights. A soldier does not build a house; he does not aspire to possession of lands; he does not concern himself with devious, coin-purveying trade. … The soldier enjoys a sustenance provided by the king; he need not furnish his own, nor vex himself in this regard.

When the final taps is sounded and we lay aside life's cares,
And we do the last and glories parade, on Heaven's shining stairs,
And the angels bid us welcome and the harps begin to play,
We can draw a million canteen checks and spend them in a day,
It is then we'll hear St. Peter tell us loudly with a yell,
"Take a front seat you soldier men, you've done your hitch in Hell."

You cannot make soldiers of slaves, or slaves of soldiers, the day you make a soldier of them, is the beginning of the end of the revolution. And if slaves seem good soldiers, than our whole theory of slavery is wrong.

Inquiry shall likewise be made about the professions and trades of those who are brought to be admitted to the [Christian] faith. ... A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded, and to refuse to take an oath; if he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected. ... If a catechumen or a believer seeks to become a soldier, they must be rejected, for they have despised God.

Most of the people who get sent to die in wars are young men who've got a lot of energy and would probably rather, in a better world, be putting that energy into copulation rather than going over there and blowing some other young man's guts out.

And though ten out of twelve had fallen, still the last two, sure as death, were to be bound on the first evening of rest over the bottle, drinking a silent health to their death companions, talking and laughing over all they had been through. For dangers past - an old soldier laughs. For those to come - a full glass, though death and the devil grinn there, as long as the wine was good. Such has ever been the custom of war.

We see human heroism broken into units and say, this unit did little – might as well not have been. But in this way we might break up a great army into units; in this way we might break the sunlight into fragments, and think that this and the other might be cheaply parted with. Let us rather raise a monument to the soldiers whose brave hearts only kept the ranks unbroken and met death – a monument to the faithful who were not famous, and who are precious as the continuity of the sunbeams is precious, though some of them fall unseen and on barrenness.

O Dormer, how can I behold thy fate,
And not the wonders of thy youth relate;
How can I see the gay, the brave, the young,
Fall in the cloud of war, and lie unsung!
In joys of conquest he resigns his breath,
And, filled with England's glory, smiles in death.

O little Force that in your agony
Stood fast while England girt her armour on,
Held high our honour in your wounded hands,
Carried our honour safe with bleeding feet—
We have no glory great enough for you,
The very soul of Britain keeps your day.

Anonymous. Published in a London Newspaper, 1917.

An Austrian army awfully arrayed.
Siege of Belgrade.

Poem arranged with "Apt alliteration's artful aid." First appeared in The Trifler, May 7, 1817, printed at Winchester, Eng. Found in Bentley's Miscellany, March, 1838, p. 313. Quoted in Wheeler's Mag. Winchester, Eng, Volume I, p. 344. (1828). Attributed to Rev. B. Poulter, of Winchester. In the Wild Garland to Isaac J. Reeve. Claimed for Alaric A. Watts by his son in a biography of Watts, Volume I, p. 118.

You led our sons across the haunted flood,
Into the Canaan of their high desire—
No milk and honey there, but tears and blood
Flowed where the hosts of evil trod in fire,
And left a worse than desert where they passed.

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blest!
* * * * *
By fairy hands their knell is rung,
By forms unseen their dirge is sung.

Collins, Ode Written in 1746.

Who passes down this road so late?
Compagnon de la Majaloine?
Who passes down this road so late,
Always gay!

Of all the King's Knights 'tis the flower,
Compagnon de la Majaloine,
Of all the King's Knights 'tis the flower,
Always gay!

Compagnon de la Majaloine. Old French Song.

Back of the boy is Wilson,
Pledge of his high degree,
Back of the boy is Lincoln,
Lincoln and Grant and Lee;
Back of the boy is Jackson,
Jackson and Tippecanoe,
Back of each son is Washington,
And the old red, white and blue!

I have seen men march to the wars, and then
I have watched their homeward tread,
And they brought back bodies of living men,
But their eyes were cold and dead.
So, Buddy, no matter what else the fame,
No matter what else the prize,
I want you to come back thru The Flame
With the boy-look still in your eyes!

But for you, it shall be forever Spring,
And only you shall be forever fearless,
And only you shall have white, straight, tireless limbs,
And only you, where the water lily swims,
Shall walk along pathways, thro' the willows
Of your West.
You who went West,
And only you on silvery twilight pillows
Shall take your rest
In the soft, sweet glooms
Of twilight rooms.

The Seconds that tick as the clock moves along
Are Privates who march with a spirit so strong.
The Minutes are Captains. The Hours of the day
Are Officers brave, who lead on to the fray.
So, remember, when tempted to loiter and dream
You've an army at hand; your command is supreme;
And question yourself, as it goes on review—
Has it helped in the fight with the best it could do?

Philander Johnson. Lines selected by Paymaster Gen. McGowan to distribute to those under his command during the Great War. See Everybody's Magazine, May, 1920, p. 36.

He smote them hip and thigh.

Judges, XV. 8.

In a wood they call the Rouge Bouquet,
There is a new-made grave today,
Built by never a spade nor pick,
Yet covered with earth ten meters thick.
There lie many fighting men,
Dead in their youthful prime.

"For they're hangin' Danny Deever, you can 'ear the Dead March play,
The regiment's in 'ollow square—They're hangin' him to-day;
They're taken of his buttons off an' cut his stripes away,
An' they're hangin' Danny Deever in the morning."

So 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan;
You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man;
And 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, with your 'ay-rick 'ead of 'air;
You big black boundin' beggar—for you broke a British square!

It is not the guns or armament
Or the money they can pay,
It's the close co-operation
That makes them win the day.
It is not the individual
Or the army as a whole,
But the everlastin' teamwork
Of every bloomin' soul.

J. Mason Knox. Claimed for him by his wife in a communication in New York Times.

But in a large sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

Ned has gone, he's gone away, he's gone away for good.
He's called, he's killed.
Him and his drum lies in the rain, lies where they was stood.
Where they was stilled.

A. Neil Lyons ("Edwin Smallweed"), Drums. Appeared in the London Weekly Dispatch.

Nicanor lay dead in his harness.

II Maccabees, XV. 28.

Here's to the Blue of the wind-swept North
When we meet on the fields of France,
May the spirit of Grant be with you all
As the sons of the North advance!
* * * * *
Here's to the Gray of the sun-kissed South
When we meet on the fields of France,
May the spirit of Lee be with you all
As the sons of the South advance!
* * * * *
And here's to the Blue and the Gray as One!
When we meet on the fields of France,
May the spirit of God be with us all
As the sons of the Flag advance!

Judge not that ye be not judged; we carried the torch to the goal.
The goal is won: guard the fire: it is yours: but remember our soul
Breathes through the life that we saved, when our lives went out in the night:
Your body is woven of ours: see that the torch is alight.

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo;
No more on Life's parade shall meet
The brave and fallen few.
On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards, with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.

Theodore Roosevelt, at the meeting of the Mayor's Committee on National Defense, Madison Square (Oct., 1917). Speech to the audience after their enthusiastic demonstration over the patriotic addresses.

A thousand leagues of ocean, a company of kings,
You came across the watching world to show how heroes die.
When the splendour of your story
Builds the halo of its glory,
'Twill belt the earth like Saturn's rings
And diadem the sky.

"M.R.C.S." In Anzac, on Colonial Soldiers (1919).

'Tis a far, far cry from the "Minute-Men,"
And the times of the buff and blue
To the days of the withering Jorgensen
And the hand that holds it true.
'Tis a far, far cry from Lexington
To the isles of the China Sea,
But ever the same the man and the gun—
Ever the same are we.

Home they brought him slain with spears,
They brought him home at even-fall.

Alfred Tennyson, version of the song in The Princess, Canto V, as published in the Selections. (1865). T. J. Wise, Bibliography of Tennyson, only reprinted in the Miniature Edition (1870), Volume III, p. 147.

Under the tricolor, long khaki files of them
Through the Étoile, down the Champs Elysées
Marched, while grisettes blew their kisses to miles of them,
And only the old brushed the tear stains away—
Out where the crows spread their ominous pinions
Shadowing France from Nancy to Fay,
Singing they marched 'gainst the Kaiser's gray minions,
Singing the song of boyhood at play.

Charles Law Watkins, The Boys who never grew up, To the Foreign Legion, written on the Somme (Dec., 1916).

The more we work, the more we may,
It makes no difference to our pay.

We are the Royal Sappers. War Song, popular in England. (1915).

Our youth has stormed the hosts of hell and won;
Yet we who pay the price of their oblation
Know that the greater war is just begun
Which makes humanity the nations' Nation.

Oh, a strange hand writes for our dear son—O, stricken mother's soul!
All swims before her eyes—flashes with black—she catches the main words only;
Sentences broken—gun-shot wound in the breast, cavalry skirmish, taken to hospital;
At present low, but will soon be better.

Soldiers! When it is announced that a respected and beloved leader has died for our freedom in the course of the battle, do not grieve, do not lose hope! Observe that anyone who dies for his country is a fortunate man, but death takes what it wants, indiscriminately, in peace-time as well as in war. It is better to die with freedom than without it.

Our fathers who have maintained our country in freedom for us have offered us their life in sacrifice; so let them be an example to you!

Soldier, trader, peasant, young and old, man and woman, be united! Defend your country by helping each other! According to ancient custom, the women will stand in defence of their country by giving encouragement to the soldier and by caring for the wounded. Although Italy is doing everything possible to disunite us, whether Christian or Muslim we will unitedly resist.

shelter and our shield is God. May our attackers' new weapons not deflect you from your thoughts which are dedicated to your defence of Ethiopia's freedom.

Your King who speaks to you today will at that time be in your midst, prepared to shed his blood for the liberty of Ethiopia.

Honor to the Soldier, and Sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field, and serves, as he best can, the same cause—honor to him, only less than to him, who braves, for the common good, the storms of heaven and the storms of battle.

This extraordinary war in which we are engaged falls heavily upon all classes of people, but the most heavily upon the soldier. For it has been said, all that a man hath will he give for his life; and while all contribute of their substance the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. The highest merit, then, is due to the soldier.

I have every confidence in the ultimate success of our joint cause; but success in modern war requires something more than courage and a willingness to die: it requires careful preparation. This means the furnishing of sufficient troops and sufficient material to meet the known strength of a potential enemy. No general can make something out of nothing. My success or failure will depend primarily upon the resources which the respective governments place at my disposal. My faith in them is complete. In any event I shall do my best. I shall keep the soldier's faith.

Douglas MacArthur, first public statement upon arriving in Australia, March 1942. A Soldier Speaks, Public Papers and Speeches of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, ed. Vorin E. Whan, Jr., p. 115 (1965).

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

Douglas MacArthur, address to a joint session of Congress, April 19, 1951, Congressional Record, vol. 97, p. 4125. According to The Home Book of Quotations, ed. Burton Stevenson, 9th ed., p. 2298h, col. 2 (1964), this is a line from a soldier's parody of a nineteenth century gospel hymn, "Kind Words Can Never Die". The parody was known at West Point where MacArthur was graduated in 1903. However, since the earliest printed version of the song "Old Soldiers Never Die" is found in the London publication, Tommy's Tunes, compiled by Frederick T. Nettleingham, p. 58 (1917), there is also the theory that the origin of the parody was English. That version's line read: "Old soldiers never die, they always fade away". Several other variations have been used by English authors: "They simply fade away", Frank Richards, Old Soldiers Never Die, chapter 23, p. 324 (1933); and "they only fade away", James Ronald, Old Soldiers Never Die, p. 7 (1942).

The soldier, above all other men, is required to perform the highest act of religious teaching—sacrifice. In battle and in the face of danger and death he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when He created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instincts can take the place of the divine annunciation and spiritual uplift which will alone sustain him.

Douglas MacArthur, speech at the annual reunion of veterans of the Rainbow (42d) Infantry Division of World War I, Washington, D.C., July 14, 1935. MacArthur, A Soldier Speaks, p. 69 (1965).

An atheist could not be as great a military leader as one who is not an atheist.

Thomas H. Moorer, as reported by The Washington Post, April 29, 1970, p. C1. Admiral Moorer, then chairman-designate of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified in U.S. District Court supporting the policy of compulsory chapel attendance at the service academies.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

Attributed to General George S. Patton, speech at the Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston Massachusetts, June 7, 1945. These words were reported by William Blair in The New York Times, June 8, 1945, p. 6, and by Stephen Lynch in the Boston Herald, June 8, 1945, p. 1, 16 (where "the" appears as "these"). Other newspapers of that day have variant wordings. The speech was extemporaneous and is not included in his published papers. Biographers of Patton have used variant wordings of this quotation, and Mike Wallace as narrator of the 1965 David Wolper television production, General George Patton, quoted this as, "Let me not mourn for the men who have died fighting, but rather let me be glad that such heroes have lived". Patton had expressed himself in similar words at a memorial service at an Allied cemetery near Palermo, Italy, November 11, 1943: "I consider it no sacrifice to die for my country. In my mind we came here to thank God that men like these have lived rather than to regret that they have died". Harry H. Semmes, Portrait of Patton, p. 176 (1955).

Our God and Souldiers we alike adore,
Ev'n at the Brink of danger; not before:
After deliverance, both alike required;
Our God's forgotten, and our Souldiers slighted.

Francis Quarles, "Of Common Devotion", The Complete Works in Prose and Verse of Francis Quarles, ed. Alexander B. Grosart, vol. 2, p. 205 (1880). President John F. Kennedy quoted this in remarks to members of the First Armored Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia, November 26, 1962: "Many years ago, according to the story, there was found in a sentry box in Gibraltar a poem which said:
<God and the soldier, all men adore
In time of danger and not before
When the danger is passed and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier slighted.
This country does not forget God or the soldier. Upon both we now depend. Thank you". Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962, p. 840. The First Armored Division had been deployed during the Cuban crisis.

So, as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants.

These endured all and gave all that justice among nations might prevail and that mankind might enjoy freedom and inherit peace.

Author unknown. Normandy Chapel, inscription on the exterior of the lintel of the chapel. American Battle Monuments Commission, Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, p. 16 (1975, rev. 1984). This World War II memorial inscription is very similar to the World War I memorial inscription at Oise-Aisne Cemetery: These endured all and gave that honor and justice might prevail and that the world might enjoy freedom and inherit peace. American Battle Monuments Commission, Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, p. 9 (1978).

Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.

Author unknown. Inscription on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery.